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TransAsia plane crash probe focuses on engine failure

The TransAsia plane crashed shortly after take off on a domestic flight to an outlying island. The startling footage showed it hitting the road as it banked steeply away from buildings and into the Keelung River.

Pilot Liao Chien tsung has been hailed as a hero for apparently making a desperate attempt to steer the plane, with 53 passengers and five crew on board, away from built-up areas during its steep descent.

His body was found in the cockpit still holding the joystick with both hands, and with his legs badly fractured, according to the China Times.

“He disregarded his own life. He sacrificed it,” Liao’s sobbing mother told reporters.

Vice President Wu Den yih also praised Liao as he visited a funeral parlour where crash victims were taken.

“The pilot gripped the joystick tightly and was trying to control the airplane right up to the very last moment so as to avoid hitting city residents,” Wu said.

Fifteen people survived the crash, and rescuers are still searching the river and submerged wreckage for another eight who remain missing.

The CAA has grounded a total of 22 ATR planes from two Taiwanese airlines for safety checks following the accident, and TransAsia has been banned from applying for new routes for one year.

Wednesday’s incident came just seven months after another TransAsia ATR crashed during a storm, killing 48 people.

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Calls are mounting from lawmakers for a total suspension of TransAsia’s operations.

Clark Lin, chief of the CAA’s Flight Standard Division, said the airline had failed to meet many of the requirements laid down by the regulator after the July crash.

“As of the end of December, the company has failed to match around one-third of the requirements that demanded the company to improve, especially on flight safety as well personnel training and performance review,” he said, ahead of a deadline set for June.

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